Islamabad, Pakistan: House Cleansing continues in the Federal Government and the Federal Ministry of Information and Broadcasting got its new Secretary as Zahoor Ahmed, a grade 21 officer of the Secretariat Group has been posted while Sohail Ali Khan has been directed to report to Establishment Division. Under the PDM government, Sohail Ali Khan, a grade 21 officer of the Information Services cadre had been working as Secretary-Incharge, Additional Secretary, and by virtue of Secretary-Incharge, he had also working as Chairman of the state-run television Pakistan Television Corporation (popularly known as PTV) Board and as well as Managing Director of PTV at a same time. He had four positions simultaneously; the Secretary, the Additional Secretary, the Chairman PTV Board, and the Managing Director of PTV. During PDM Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, the Ministry had a tradition of giving extra charges of several posts to one person.
Since the interim government took the seat in Islamabad, large-scale transfers and the positing of senior bureaucrats have been initiated and several federal ministries have now new secretaries and additional secretaries. It is pertinent to mention that the PDM government preferred to work with PTI-placed bureaucracy, particularly the media managers who were either hired from the private sector by PTI or had been too close to PTI federal minister Fawad Ch. Former federal minister Maryum Aurangzeb continued with the same personal staff of Fawad Ch and elevated certain people with the ministry and the PTV who had been instrumental in running the media management under Fawad Ch.
It is believed that the PDM government miserably failed to mitigate PTI influence within the media as well as in federal bureaucracy and was shy to contest the PTI hate campaign against the Pakistan Army, resulting in the May 9, 2023 tragedy, and then PDM lost its space because Pakistan Army had to respond to propaganda campaign against the military in social as well as main stream media. It is a known fact that the military leadership had been asking the civilian leadership to handle the situation after former prime minister Imran Khan was voted out but PDM’s overall response was indifferent and the civilian structure was standing away from the mess.
Since Murtaza Solangi, a veteran journalist and former Director General Radio took charge as Federal Minister for Broadcasting and Information, he has been fixing things in order and has chosen his own personal team instead of running the ministry with PTI-placed management.
Having a master’s degree from the Philosophy Department of Government College Lahore (GCU), Zahoor Ahmed has been serving in federal bureaucracy for the last 30 years.
